Velocipede



(No Model.) 4 Sheets Sheet 3.

I. W. RUBEL & E. W. NAYLOR.

VELOGIPEDE.

No. 579,351. Patented Mar. 23, 1897.

F yi (No Model.) 4 Sheets-Sheet 4.

I. W. RUBEL & E. W. NAYLOR.

VELOGIPEDE.

No. 579,361 Patented Mar. 23. 1897.

r INVE 0R5: WITNESSES: 4&4

lUNrTEn STATEs PATENT UEETEE.

IRA w. RUBEL, OF NEw YORK, N. Y. AND EENEsr w. NAYLOR, OF BOUND BROOK,EW JERSEY.

'VELOCIPEDE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 579,351, dated March23, 1897. Application filed December 23, 1895. Serial No. 573,030. (Nomodel.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that we, IRA W. RUBEL, of the city, county, and State of NewYork, and ERNEST W. NAYLOR, a resident of Bound Brook, in the county ofSomerset and State of New Jersey, citizens of the United States, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Velocipedes, of whichthe following is a specification.

Our invention relates to foot-power propel ling mechanism forvclocipedes in which the power is transmitted by means of a fluid mediumof liquid, air, or gas; and the objects of our invention are to providea means of transmission which is readily susceptible of change ofleverage between the driving and driven parts to any desired ratiowithout interchangin g any parts; also, to dispense with a drivingchainor gearing and reduce friction; also, to

enable a number of persons on a tandem bicycle or other vehicie carryingmore than one rider to contribute manual propelling power with motionsindependent of one another; also, to allow the pedals to rest while thema- 2 5 chine is in motion; also, to provide an effective fluid-brake,and also to attain other advantages which will hereinafter appear; andin order to enable others skilled in the art to which our inventionappertains to understand and use the same we will proceed to describethe details of its construction, explain its operation, and subsequentlypoint out in the appended claims its novel characteristics.

Referring to the accompanying drawings,

3 5 in which similar characters of reference indicate correspondingparts throughout the several views, Figure 1 is a side elevation of abicycle, showing our invention applied thereto; Fig. 1, a detail View insection at y 'y,

Fig. 1; Fig. 2, an enlarged horizontal section on the line as m, Fig. 1;Fig. 3, a vertical section on the line y y, Fig. 2; Fig. 4, a verticalsection on the line .2 2, Fig. 5; Fig. 5, an enlarged detail view asseen looking rearward 5 from the vertical plane of section m 00, Fig.

1; and Fig. 6, an enlarged detail view showing the brake-valve insection. Fig. 7 is a side elevation illustrating our invention ap pliedto a tandem bicycle.

Our invention may be applied to any species of velocipede or othervehicle, and we have herein illustrated it as applied to a reardrivenbicycle. The usual construction of frame A is herein represented, thesame co1nprising the tubular center brace B, the upper 5 5 and lowerbraces C and D, respectively, also tubular, the steering-head E, therear upper brace F, and the rear lower brace G.

H is the usual steering-fork, provided with a handle-bar I. The usualsteering-wheel J and traction-wheel K are illustrated, and the essentialparts of our invention for transmitting power from the vibrating pedals1 2 to the traction-wheel K consist as follows: The pedal-arms 1'2 arepivoted at 3 to the frame A on the rear lower brace thereof, and abovethe pedals and mounted at each side of the saddle-post B there are twopump-cylinders 4i 5, and the plungers 6 7 of these cylinders areconnected by means of connecting-rods 8 9 to the pedal-arms at 10 10.The plungers 6 7 are mechanically connected to reciprocate in oppositedirections simultaneously by means of vibrating arms 11 11, pivoted onthe center brace B, as seen in Fig. 5.

Motor-cylinders 12 13 are mounted on the rear lower brace G uponopposite sides of the traction-wheel K, and the plungers 14: 15 of thesemotor-cylinders are connected to cranks 10 17 on opposite ends of theshaft 18, to which the traction-wheel K is secured. The shaft 18 isjournaled in ball-bearings 19, Figs. 2 and 3, and inside or between thesaid bearings and the hub 20 of the wheel K there are eccentrics 21 and22 on each side of 8 5 said hub, and these eccentrics are connected bymeans of their. rods 23 24 and rock-arms 25 25 and valve-rods 26 2G tooperate slidevalves 27 27 in casings 28 28, which distribute theactuating-pressure in a proper manner to operate the motors 12 13 so as.to drive the machine in a forward direction.

30 30 are the induction-ports of the motors, and 31 31 are the eductionports thereof.

The pumps 4 5 are provided with check- 5 valves 32 and 33, respectively,at their induction-ports 34 34 and eduction-ports 35 35, and theeduction-port 35 of each pump connects with the induction-port 30 ofboth motors through tubes 36 36 and the cross- 10o tube 50.

The tubular members 13 G D of the frame A comprise a reservoir which maybe partly filled with liquid or filled with gas or opened to theatmospheric air. A cap 37 is provided to the reservoir for fillingpurposes when Water or oil is used as the fluid medium, or said cap maybe left open in case air is used.

The eduction-ports 31 31 of the motors are connected with the reservoirB C D by tubes 38 3S, and the induction-ports 34 34 of the pumps connectwith the said reservoir through tubes 39 39.

The eduction-tubes of the motors join into one and are intercepted witha valve 40 at their entrance into the reservoir at 41, and saidvalve,which is shown in detail in Fig. 6, consists of a spindle 42,seated so as to open toward the reservoir, and the same is operated byrods 51 52, connected to the brakelever 53 on the handlebar I. The valve40 is normally open, and application of the hand to the lever 53 willclose said valve, or partially close the same, at the will of the rider,accordingly throttling the exhaust of the motors,and therefore acting asa brake-valve.

The cranks 1G 17 are provided with slots 43 43, and the crank-pins 44 44are provided with clamping-nuts 45 45, Fig. 2, whereby they are renderedadjustable at different radial distances from the axis of the shaft 18,and the stroke of the motor-plungers is determined thereby. Thus theleverage of transmission or ratio between the volume displaced by theplungers of the pump-cylinders and the motor-cylinders may be readilyadjusted without removing and interchanging parts.

The pump-cylinders 4 5 are of larger size than the motor-cylinders 121-3, whereby the traction-wheel K may be made to make more than onerevolution at each stroke of the pedals.

In the application of the invention to a tandem or other vehiclecarrying a plurality of riders a pair of pumps 4 5 4 5 are provided tobe operated independently by each person, and every pump connects at itsdelivery side with the valve-chests 28 28, as by pipes (30 and 36. Thesuction side of each pump in Fig. 7 connects wit-l1 the hollow frame orreservoir A by pipes 34, as hereinbefore described with reference toFig. 1.

In operation each pedalstroke of the rider will actuate the motors aplurality of strokes, or more than one stroke, according to theproportionate volumes displaced by the plungers of the pumps and theplungers of the motors. The length of stroke of the pedals may be variedat the convenience of the rider, as also the lineal speed of eachstroke, and the frequency of the same maybe varied, thus avoiding thenecessary cadence of pedal-stroke, as in chain or gear propulsion, andsaving fatigue by the variety of motions afforded.

In a tandem each rider may depress his pedal when he pleases independentof the others,contributing his share of the manual power according tohis strength, and the necessity of all'the riders following the samemovements and rates of movement as heretofore in chain or gearpropulsion is dispensed with. Our invention may be similarly applied toother than tandem wheeled vehicles, allowin g all the riders tocontribute independently to the propelling power.

The pedals may be brought to rest without interfering with the motion ofthe machine, so that the feet can remain on the pedals in coasting, orin a tandem one rider may rest while another is pedaling. In such casethe fluid is drawn freely through the pu mp-valves by one stroke of themotor-plunger and discharged in to the reservoir at each return strokeof said plunger, the same playing freely in its cylinder.

Having thus fully described our invention, what we claim, and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is-

1. In a rear-driven bicycle, the combination of two reciprocating pumpshaving their cylinders mounted upon opposite sides of the center braceand substantially parallel therewith, vibrating foot-pedals pivoted tothe frame and connected with the plungers of said pumps, a transversevibrating arm centrally pivoted on said frame and connected with saidplungers to reciprocate them alternately, two reciprocating motorshaving their cylinders mounted on the rear lower brace upon oppositesides of the traction-wheel, and cranks upon the shaft of thetraction-wheel connected with the plungers of said motors.

2. In a velocipede or other vehicle adapted to carry a plurality ofriders, the combination of a traction-wheel, a motor, and a plurality ofpairs of reciprocating compression-pumps having plungers connected withvibrating pedals, the plungers of each said pair being connectedtogether by vibrating arms giving alternate motion, said pairs of pumpsbeing adapted to be operated independently by different riders, and eachpump delivering to said motor.

Signed at New York, in the county of New York and State of New York,this 4th day of December, A. D. 1895.

IRA W. RUBEL. ERNEST XV. NAYLOR. lVitn esses:

HENRY F. PARKER, K. M. TUCKER.

